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In June, a global wave of cyber-attacks wrought havoc on government and corporate computer systems around the world. — Reuters picPARIS, July 17 — A serious cyber-attack could cost the global economy as much as US$53 billion (RM227 billion), putting it on a par with Hurricane Sandy in 2012, according to a report today by Lloyd’s of London.

The world’s oldest insurance market and Cyence consultancy said the threat posed by hacking attacks has surged and the global economy will be increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks over the next decade.

The report warned that the danger is also pushing up the cost of insurance for companies.

There was a growing threat that a cloud service provider could be hacked, which could cause losses of US$53 billion (€46.2 billion), it said.

That figure is the average estimate but the report said that given the uncertainty in calculating cyber losses, they could be as high as US$121.4 billion or as low as US$15.6 billion, depending on which organisations were involved and how long the cloud service disruption lasted.

The report likened the cost of a major cyber-attack to Hurricane Sandy, the second most costly storm in history, which caused damage of between US$50 billion and US$70 billion to the northeastern United States five years ago.

After a “cloud” attack, the second most likely threat stemmed from attacks on computer operating systems of the type run by a large number of businesses around the world, known as a “mass software vulnerability scenario”, which could cause losses of up to US$28.7 billion.

Lloyd’s warned that most losses from cyber-attacks were not insured, leaving governments and businesses highly vulnerable if they were to occur.

The uninsured shortfall could be as high as US$45 billion for the cloud services scenario, and US$26 billion in the event of a “mass software vulnerability scenario”.